Protest held amid anger over Brinklow green belt homes

[dutchman]

Protesters gathered as councillors prepared to discuss the local plan on Wednesday



Protesters have urged a council to reconsider where to build hundreds of new homes amid fears some areas could not support bigger communities.

About 150 campaigners assembled outside Rugby Town Hall on Wednesday ahead of a full borough council meeting which was due to consider the authority's local plan.

The chairman of Brinklow Parish Council, John Reid, was among the protesters and described it as a plan "to build in the wrong place".

Rugby Borough Council leader, Michael Moran, said the authority is launching an eight-week consultation to "listen to residents and parish councils".

Mr Reid said the council intended to build "enormous numbers of houses which we don't think are justified".

"They want to build them in the green belt because they've changed their mind about the green belt," he added.

"They now say if there are exceptional circumstances, they'll just move the boundary."

Councillors voted in their meeting for their preferred plan to go to an eight-week public consultation, starting on Monday.

A local plan sets out local planning policies for a council and identifies how land is used, determining what will be built where.

Council figures, external include allocations of 415 homes at Brinklow, 710 homes at Wolvey, 150 at Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, 210 at Dunchurch, 400 at Long Lawford, 525 for Hillmorton and 165 at Stretton-on-Dunsmore.

Mr Reid said Brinklow did not have enough doctors or dentists, there was one shop, the village did not have a cash machine and more homes would lead to "dreadful" traffic conditions.

"We don't want to say no. We just want to be reasonable," he added.

Linda Johnson, from Brinklow, said there have been no discussions about infrastructure, sewers and pumping stations.

The area flooded, she added, and claimed the scheme would see countryside and good drainage land concreted over.

"We've got a village with no schools in. We're way more than three miles away from the nearest secondary school," she said.

"Put houses where it's going to be convenient for people to live in those houses and where there is infrastructure already in place to stop flooding."

Denise Lewis, also from Brinklow, said: "It would double the size of the village."

She said the council should look at brownfield sites around Rugby.